News Comment/COMENTARI AL DIA

Tax Inspect Duran/INSPECCIÓ FISCAL A DURAN

Tax Inspect Duran

The Chicago Way: Mafia godfather Al Capone ended up in to jail for not paying taxes. Below: TheCatalan Way: Only 1.5% has been recovered from the vanished millions. Duran’s faithful friend, the Andorran Fidel (Faithful) Pallerols still has not been tried after more than ten years criminally indicted. Did Duran have accounts in tax haven Andorra?

Investigative journal El Triangle interviews Josep C. Verges about his call for Duran to justify how he paid back his bank credits and have him undergo a tax inspection (Search Duran Pays in Black and White).

You stated that the income declared by Duran failed to cover his mortgage payments. Where did he get his money from then?

You should ask him that question. He declared three properties and three credits, one of them as he says of €150 million. I’ll be generous and assume he was wrong and meant €150,000, which he returned at amazing speed. As Parlamentarian and secretary general of CIU he is paid a maximum of €10,000 per month while his expenses are €15,000 merely returning the principal on the mortgage.

Like you say, the numbers don’t add…

On top he stays in Madrid in a luxury suite at the Palace Hotel which charges €800 a day. Where does he get this money? Since we have a surfeit of tax inspectors in Barcelona, I think it would be worthwhile they undertake an inspection of Mr. Duran to make him explain how the credits were returned.

Duran has said more than once that CiU is a Catalan lobbyist in Madrid. This would explain many things.

What I am certain is that the luxury suite he has at the Palace, in front of Congress, is not to receive Parlamentarians but other types of persons. I cannot believe it is a love nest, because he is a married man and undoubtedly he is very faithful.

In 2010 you were convicted to pay €4,000 for some comments you made about the leader of UDC. Do you believe he is untouchable?

He wanted my book “All Duran’s Men, the Political Corruption of Catalonia” banned, but the Supreme Court did not touch a single comma. They only found against me because a journalist had asked me if Duran offered 400 million [pesetas] to shut me up and I asked him ironically if these came from his account in Andorra. They said this cannot be said. But it would be instructive if they investigated whether he has had a bank account in Andorra over the last ten years. In fact, the trial has been pending for years of his Andorran friend in charge of handling the missing money of the unemployed Catalans [He refers to the Employment Case]. It should be worth our while to get to the bottom of this.

What interests do you believe Duran defends in Madrid?

This year I don’t think he has had much time to be a lobbyist, because he has spent it in obtaining a pardon for the only ones in his Christian Democrat party sentenced to go to jail for corruption. I believe he has invested many hours for this endeavour with Rajoy and Co. Maybe now he will be more of a lobbyist, but I don’t understand why it should be so. Doesn’t he represent all Catalans and shouldn’t he do things openly? In exchange for what does he do all this?

This returns us to the issue of income…

In 2010, in the middle of the crisis, he bought a villa on the Costa Brava and I don’t know of many people who bought one in 2010. And with a mortgage of €600,000.

Without his Madrid post, he could not behave this way?

When he was in Barcelona all the various corruption scandals developed in the ministries controlled by his party. I’m not sure we would better off with him here. The EU gave millions to retrain unemployed Catalans, which mostly disappeared and has never been returned.

We are talking of someone who has been for three decades heading a party. Did this help irregular behaviour?

Here we have a really shameful party system. It is the antithesis of open elections. Allied party Convergencia has also never reformed. These immobilist parties run by these people make it very difficult over the long run to improve things. Instead of asking people to make sacrifices, they should make sacrifices themselves. Why do we have so many ministries? Switzerland which is our size only has seven. We don’t need so many official cars or huge salaries for politicians. Duran must undergo a tax inspection.